They've given me my life back – that was the uplifting message from one woman who has been helped by Leeway after she fled her home with her daughter after months of abuse erupted in violence.
The 41-year-old mother and her teenage daughter, who we are not naming, are backing our campaign after having spent the past few months in a Leeway refuge.
It followed a violent outburst at the end of a catalogue of hs of abuse lasting months, which had left the mother feeling like 'killing herself'.
She said: 'He left me with bruises and carpet burns. He dragged me through the front door and told me he was going to kill me – he kept saying over my head that he was going to kill me for about 10 minutes.
'I had him charged the first time it got physical but there was a lot of mental stuff before that. Verbal abuse and threats. He told me I was null and void.'
But despite being convicted of assault, and with a restraining order in place, the victim and her daughter continued to be watched by the abuser who used other people to keep watch on them, what they were up to and who they were seeing.
'We were living behind closed doors with our curtains shut; my daughter wanted us to live on the streets rather than to carry on taking what we did,' said the victim, who was even followed by her former partner in his car.
But she said she felt safe now after having been given a fresh start with the help of Leeway and has given her backing to our campaign.
She said: 'Leeway is a great charity... without them I don't know where I would be right now.
'I had nowhere to go.
'You think you've got friends until something like this happens.
'People stay out of it or take sides and you get blamed for a lot of things.
'They've given me my life back, made me realise I didn't deserve any of that and given us a safe place.
'They've given us a lifeline, that's what they do.'
Meanwhile a woman who was left feeling 'dead inside' after years of emotional and psychological abuse has described how she has been given her life back after she sought help from Leeway.
The woman, who we are not naming, has spent months in one of the charity's refuges after having endured years of emotional abuse at the hands of her husband who, for years, had controlled her every move.
She said: 'I was just dead inside because I was so unhappy.
'People assume you're not being abused if you're not being beaten but you're being abused emotionally.
'Every day you wake up and think you haven't done enough to make your husband happy. Every day is full of that and it just wears you down.'
She said looking back the issues had been there from the start of their marriage.
'You don't realise at the time what it is. You blame yourself for things that happen. You're always a problem, you're never good enough, you're going to have to try harder to please me and you never can – it never works.
'You blame yourself for why you're not happy as a couple and reach a crisis point.'
She said she told her husband she wanted some time out after an argument about their son which prompted him to 'blow up' at her.
He then started putting up recording devices to listen into conversations she was having with friends, took her car away from her, monitored her calls, all of which prompted her to say she wanted to leave after which he threatened to kill himself.
She said: 'I was terrified because I thought he could
kill me and my son before himself.'
The woman knew nothing about Leeway until she was encouraged to give them a call but is delighted she did as it has changed her life completely.
She said: 'I think about how safe I feel because I'm safe now, not scared.'
To find out more about Kerri's Campaign and how to donate, read our previous story; 'I just want good to come from this' - mother of murdered Norwich woman Kerri McAuley backs our campaign to raise £10,000 for Leeway
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